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Topic: Bargain Culture (Read 160 times)

A 42-year-old man is facing more than a dozen charges in connection with a fraud scheme involving barbecues sold at Home Depot.In each incident, police say a suspect visited one of several Home Depot locations, removed a price label from a lower priced Weber barbecue and placed it on one valued much higher – at around $1,599.The suspect would then purchase the more expensive barbeque for the price of the cheaper one – around $220 – using a fraudulent Home Depot gift card.

Ok - we can admit that this guy went over the line. ( Right ? ) But what are your bargain hacks ?

I don't have many but I have a few:

- Loblaws let you have mismarked on-sale goods for free - to a limit. So I would try to buy the maximum if I suspected the produce was mis-marked to get as much free stuff as possible. It worked to a degree, but they since changed the policy.

- I use FLIPP - a mobile app - to watch for certain goods to go on sale. You can, for example, pay $6.99 for a kg of coffee for ever and ever if you use this method.

It's weird that this is just getting news now. I worked at Home Depot years ago and people were doing the exact same thing then. Why does this case suddenly make the news? Perhaps I'll start a thread: News Culture.

Here's a tip. If you need AV cables and speaker wire and the like, buy them at Princess Auto or Dollarama or other dollar stores. Paying ridiculous amounts of money for brand-name cables is for suckers.

Here's a tip. If you need AV cables and speaker wire and the like, buy them at Princess Auto or Dollarama or other dollar stores. Paying ridiculous amounts of money for brand-name cables is for suckers.

-k

You've got to be careful with HDMI cables. So long as they're high bandwidth though, you're good to go. They don't need to be brand name.

I often buy little gizmos and gadgets from China. If you do as well, you can save money by cutting out the middleman.

I'm browsing on Amazon and see something that would be handy... a micro flashlight, a novel keychain tool, something like that. I look on Gearbest or AliExpress and wow, the same thing is there at a fraction of the price. The difference is instead of some importer bringing it from China, slapping their own logo on it, and selling it through Amazon at 1000% mark-up, you can just buy it straight from the source. Free shipping!

The only downside is this stuff takes weeks to arrive. I often buy a bunch of stuff, forget I ordered it, and then when they start showing up in my mailbox, it's like receiving unexpected presents from a secret admirer.

I often buy little gizmos and gadgets from China. If you do as well, you can save money by cutting out the middleman.

I'm browsing on Amazon and see something that would be handy... a micro flashlight, a novel keychain tool, something like that. I look on Gearbest or AliExpress and wow, the same thing is there at a fraction of the price. The difference is instead of some importer bringing it from China, slapping their own logo on it, and selling it through Amazon at 1000% mark-up, you can just buy it straight from the source. Free shipping!

The only downside is this stuff takes weeks to arrive. I often buy a bunch of stuff, forget I ordered it, and then when they start showing up in my mailbox, it's like receiving unexpected presents from a secret admirer.

-k

Not a good way to buy clothes though. Apparently they can be not exactly as pictured in color, style or size.

Logged

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays